Liberated by the Truth

I recently was asked to give a class on gender ideology. I've written about this
many times before, but I was once again struck by how nonsensical gender theory is. It is a soup of very strange ideas -- my biological sex is irrelevant to my self-determined "gender identity", the "male/female binary" is oppressive and must be eliminated, there are an infinite number of possible genders, and everyone's choice of gender identity must be accepted and affirmed by the government and other people.

Gender ideology is a symptom of a significant modern intellectual disorder -- a rejection of objective truth. This is so severe that it affects not just theories of sexuality, but it infects our political dialogue and is a serious problem within the Church. The need to hold firm to the truth is more important now than ever. Blaise Pascal, the French philosopher, wrote in the 17th Century something that so clearly applies to our own age:

Truth is so obscure in these times, and falsehood so established, that, unless we love the truth, we cannot know it.

Two recent news items exemplify what happens if we aren't fully dedicated to seeking the truth.

This week, a group of Evangelicals issued a document called
"The Nashville Statement". It is a re-statement of very basic Biblical values about marriage, sexuality, homosexuality, and gender theory. It re-affirms that God's basic plan for humanity is that we are male and female, that sexuality is designed to be expressed solely within a marriage between a man and a woman, and that homosexuality and transgenderism are not consistent with God's plan. The Statement was nothing earth-shattering, in that it was really just a brief summary of Christian Morality 101 as the Church has always believed, just applied to the hot issues of the day. All orthodox Christians -- Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox -- should have little difficulty assenting to it.

Of course, nothing in Christian Morality 101 is uncontroversial in this age. Many liberal Protestants and some Catholics denounced the statement as judgmental and un-Christlike, and claimed that its tone is antithetical to the need for dialogue and inclusiveness. One even called it "evil". A satirical religious website aptly skewered the flap with a story entitled
"Progressives Appalled As Christians Affirm Doctrine Held Unanimously For 2,000 Years". This is what happens when the truths that have been handed down to us become optional.

The second news item was a wonderful op-ed in the Wall Street Journal by Cardinal Robert Sarah. It was titled "How Catholics Can Welcome LGBT Believers" (the article is unfortunately behind a paywall, but you can read a decent account of it
here and
here). If a piece with that title had appeared in the New York Times, written by any of the usual suspects, it would have said all of the tediously usual things -- dialogue, acceptance, affirmation, a rejection of allegedly "hurtful" statements in the Catechism, bridge-building, etc., etc. The notions of sin, immorality, repentance, and conversion would have been conspicuously absent.

But Cardinal Sarah's op-ed offered a refreshingly different approach. His theme was that God loves all of us and wants us to be happy. The most loving thing that we can do for our "LGBT" brethren is to present them with the full and unalloyed teaching of the Church and to encourage them to live lives of chastity. He also stated plainly what the Church has known forever, namely that sin is bad for us but living according to God's will brings us fulfilment and joy.

In other words, the truth is the best medicine for what ails all of us, including homosexuals and transgenders. Our disordered desires lead us to the slavery of sin rather than the liberation that comes from a life in Christ. And the desire to act against God's will is not, and cannot be, a gift -- it is a curse.

This is the reason that we are so insistent on defending our religious liberty and freedom of speech against all threats. We are seeing bills that would impose criminal penalties on those who fail to use a transgender person's favored pronouns, school policies that restrict students' ability to speak about their faith, and laws that seek to punish businesses that don't want to participate in same-sex "marriages". We have to resist such measures, so that we can share the truths that will allow people to live according to God's will and to be set free to a life of joy.

Both the Nashville Statement and Cardinal Sarah make a crucial point. Living a life of chastity is undoubtedly difficult, especially since we will have to act against some deeply-ingrained inclinations and desires. But the grace of God is sufficient for us in our weakness (2 Cor 12:9). It offers us forgiveness and healing and will enable us to live in accord with His holy will.

God's grace helps us to love and know the truth. Which, we have on good authority, is what will set us free.